July 21, 2008
Is Obama Getting Too Much Coverage?
Critics Charge Media Has Been Unbalanced In Race Between McCain, Obama
-
Play CBS Video Video Favorites In The Media? The media's coverage of Barack Obama has been criticized for showing favoritism. Many say Obama's rival, John McCain, has been dealt a significant disadvantage. Randall Pinkston reports.
-
Photo Essay Barack Obama A look at the life and meteoric rise of the president-elect.
-
Photo Essay John McCain Some call him a hero, some a maverick. Will Americans call him Mr. President?
The widely covered trip is the latest example of what some critics are saying is a continuing pattern that puts Obama's presidential opponent, Sen. John McCain, at a disadvantage, reports CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston.
The trip is a high risk gamble, and as one journalism expert adds, highly unusual.
"International travel is not usually a way for candidates to win the White House," says Tom Rosenstiel, the director of the Project For Excellence In Journalism. "That says something about Obama's needs as a candidate and what the issues are this year."
What Obama is trying to strengthen is his foreign policy credibility. McCain, a war hero with decades in the Senate, claims he already has it.
What McCain doesn't have these days is media magic.
Since June 9th, when Obama effectively clinched the votes for the nomination, the Project For Excellence In Journalism took a weekly look at 300 political stories in newspapers, magazines and television. In 77 percent of the stories, Obama played an important role, and 51 percent featured McCain.
"That's an edge," said Rosenthiel. "That is a big enough difference that it is an uneven playing field probably for McCain."
And there is more to come. As Obama continues his foreign travels to the Middle East and Europe, he will be interviewed by all three network anchors - CBS' Katie Couric on Tuesday, ABC's Charles Gibson on Eednesday and NBC's Brian Williams on Thursday.
While Obama's likely to endure tough questions from the networks, the amount of media attention will probably remain lopsided.
"A lot of Republicans are very frustrated with what they see is the uncritical coverage of Barack Obama's candidacy," said David Mark, a senior writer at Politico.com.
At the end of the day, Obama may have his chief political opponent to thank for this shower of media attention.
"This could end up backfiring on Sen. McCain who sort of goaded Barack Obama into taking this trip. On his Web site, he repeatedly had a sign up about how long it had been since he went to Iraq," Mark said.
The tour could also trip up Obama. One slip or gaffe could hurt his candidacy and give him the kind of media coverage he doesn’t want.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
More From CBS Evening News
The secrets of tennis legend 
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- next
See all 68 CommentsBTW, CBS, of all the disheartening things daily in this country, your inexcusable editing job is one of the worst.
And it is politics and the media that is easy
A gift from the
Glee is free
CBS is not a paid Public Relations firm. Why are you protecting him at the expense of the American people? We need an explanation for this media bias.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by love234ameri at 10:48 PM : Jul 21, 2008
********************************************
Yeah, those Hawaiians are real weirdo''s. LOL.
***************************
I guess you forgot about the Cuban missle crisis.
************************************
Not for me. I LOVE it! :o)
If McCain would stand on his own two legs instead of trying to pull Obama''s out from under him, he might merit a little attention. As it is, he should be thankful he''s not getting any attention or people might realize what an embarrassment he is.
Uh yeah, JFK did nothing. Seems to make sense considering you think McCain is a hero.
Obama said about his trip abroad "........with people like Pres. Karza or Maliki or Pres. Sarkozy or others WHO I EXPECT TO BE DEALING WITH OVER THE NEXT EIGHT TO TEN YEARS". Does this inexperienced, silver tongues liar know that in the United States of America an election for President and Commander In Chief will be held this November??? Apparently not, but then, again, he has spent most of his life living in Hawaii (even tho a U.S. state, they live differently there) and in Indonesia, a Muslim country, so you have to excuse his ignorance of American policy.
Today McCain went on TV and demonstrated his lack of understanding of the middle east, by saying Iraq has a border with Afghanistan.
That demands detailed consideration.
ALZHEIMER''s is the best explanation.
It is imperative to closely follow both campaigns.
Today McCain went on TV and demonstrated his lack of understanding of the middle east, by saying Iraq has a border with Afghanistan.
That demands detailed consideration.
Today, in Iraq, the Maliki government said, Iraq agrees with Obama''s plan to get our troops out by the end of 2010. That''s major news.
We have been at war for 7 years. You cannot cover that story TOO MUCH. The Iraq''s disagree with John and Bush and the Iraqi''s support the Obama position. You cannot cover that story too much.
Until now, the Bush-McCain "plan" was to keep our troops in Iraq for a generation. The rejection by the elected Iraqi government of the McCain Bush ''plan'' is major news, and the only spin the Bush-McCain cabal could come up with today is that the Iraqi''s may have been mistranslated.
They were not. The NY Times took that ball and ran with it and they came up with the same translation as the German magazine that first ran it. Then, after all that, the Maliki employee SAID IN ENGLISH, WE WANT THE US OUT BY THE END OF 2010. That is the opposite of John McCain''s PLAN. OBAMA wins. That''s NEWS. You cannot play it big enough. The end of the war is in sight. And we can go after Bin Laudin now, something that Bush apparently was unwilling to do.
Two words ....... HELL YEAH!!!!!!!!!!
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- next
See all 68 Comments